Paths--A new interactive series of discussion and writing

Footprint in sand -- the beginning of a footpath

In the past six months there have been many people searching our online images for pictures of paths and pathways.  I don’t know what longing—or marketing strategy—is bubbling up from the collective mind and expressing itself as Internet searches, but I am curious.  Captivated by  curiosity I decided to see what I can learn.  Today starts a blog-series on paths and pathways, and for the occasion, I have collected a wide variety of pictures into a new gallery called “Pathways and transitions”

My aim is to creatively investigate paths,  moving freely within and between the literary and the literal, and generously tapping into allegory, history, and creative imagining.  

Revelation is possible!  Perhaps my inquiry into “the path”, the classic timeless symbol for life and its great mysteries, will offer me a useful view of my own path and my manner of path-walking.  Who knows?  There is much to be gained.  My enriched symbolic understanding, combined with some excellent books on landscape design, and Gib ready to heft a shovel means the odds are good  that some great paths will be started in my gardens and the woods nearby.  Its real data.

Join us!  Seven women (+ an honorary woman), ranging in age from mid- 30's to mid- 80s and scattered  in Ireland, Boston, Vermont, and Missouri have contribued materials for the series so far.       Irreverent, soulful, hilarious, and poignant  are a few words that come to mind.   Just send your thoughts or a favorite poem on paths and pathways.  Commit acts of word play or ask questions.  Describe the features you belive are important to a really great path or the worst ever.

All comments and suggestions will be gathered and enjoyed and then  rewoven and shared again into a living discussion.  Who knows where it might go? 

Stay tuned and sign up if you want to get an email when a new post is is available. Sometimes it will be a short poem, a gardening tip, a summary of our favortie features named by readers. 

Unique cut stone path through garden in pea gravel -- Design by Jonah Roberts

Path series Day one-- From Poet David Whyte who previously worked as a Shakespean  actor and  his ability to read poetry is unparalled.  See the link to his website and audio CD's.  This poem speaks to the decision to start on a path, your own path. To not get  ahead of who were are. Using the sensations of our feet and our eyes we can get grounded and be present.  A warning to not get distracted by the the advice or noise of others around us and particularly by our own minds looking too far head.  In truth sometimes the very thing we say that we want, requires a first step outside our habits creates confusion & can feel like a loss and this  frightens us-- We we ask what is wrong our dream or our dicipline?   With kindness, we practice our first steps --- starting close in.  Practicing concentration  here and now so that with  the first step we can gain strength and the experience of success.  
 

START CLOSE IN - David Whyte

Start close in,
don't take the second step
or the third,
start with the first
thing
close in,
the step
you don't want to take.

Start with
the ground
you know,
the pale ground
beneath your feet,

Start with your own
question,
give up on other
people's questions,
don't let them
smother something
simple…….

To find
another's voice,
follow
your own voice,
wait until
that voice
becomes a
private ear
listening
to another.

Start right now
take a small step
you can call your own

don't follow
someone else's
heroics, be humble
and focused,
start close in....

...start with the first
thing
close in,
the step
you don't want to take. 

D. Whyte, from book Many Rivers, 

http://www.panhala.net/Archive/Start_Close_In.html

Gallery opening-- Natalya McDonnell animals (horses) viewed from the heart

Thanks to all who contributed their vote in the T-shirt contest. T-shirt #1 "I don't need another horse, I don't need another horse..." was the winner. However, if you look at the comments you will see that everyone seems to be voting that she actually, in time, get another horse and suggested ways to amend the T-shirt to reflect this.  Such clowns we have as friends really.
As promised we welcome you to opening of the Natalya McDonnell Photography gallery called Animals (especially horses) viewed from the heart. We did add in a few of her wonderful bird pictures and there is a series with the pet rats and toy horses -- they are trying to foment revolution -- that is very funny.
Here is is as a slide show. At any point you can go directly to the gallery or look at any of the pictures more closely.
Thanks for all the wonderful blessings to this young girl coming of age-- our council of wise women and honorary women showered us with poetry, advice, humor and soulful ideas.

The proud mother
Sharon


Natalya - Life (Horses) viewed from the Heart

If you want to go directly to the gallery click on the slide show and it will take you there.
Enjoy!

An all horse birthday again

Photo of model horse by Natalya McDonnell

Natalya is turning sweet 16 and her mind remains firmly fixed on all things equine. She is a beautiful rider and loves horses intellectually, aesthetically, and passionately. She is now taking lessons to be able to teach riding and horse care.  She spent this winter trail riding through deep snow and freezing cold exploring every inch of Peacham.  Despite what seemed like a hardship she had a huge grin on her face the whole time.  Her horse Shadow is the best (yes, yes, we admit it).

So, to engender a little birthday pizzazz and we were hoping you could help us. We found a great website for horsey accouterments called "Back in the Saddle" and there are many things she liked.  Among the t-shirts she really liked two in particular and we decided we would have the community of Natalya supporters vote on which to pick.  So, Vote here and we will sign her birthday card from you too on the big day March 18, 2100. No, it doesn't matter if you vote for the winning shirt or not.

Which T-shirt do you prefer?

#1: I do not need another horse

A mantra we have her say daily

 OR #2: How do you make a small fortune with Horses? Start with a LARGE Fortune.

A sentiment most horse-loving families know well and a T-shirt they find very funny.

So just leave a comment with us here in the comments section -- you don't have to log in or anything just leave your vote and your name. Or you can vote on facebook and tell us which one you prefer. 

If you also want to include a comment or wish for Natalya feel free to do so and we will write or print it  out for her with a birthday card from all her friends far and wide.

As part of her celebration, I am going to put a gallery up of her photography.  Natalya has been channeling her grandmother and spending hours with the camera. Her theme these days is, predictably, horses and model horses. She has a great eye for it. So, for her birthday I hope to put up a Featured gallery made by Natalya of her life-like images of model horses.  I will send out the link when its finished and you will be able to leave comments too. In addition, we will update the Horse gallery of pictures in Mother daughter Press-- this is one our most visited galleries and will in add pictures and scans so stay turned

Vote now and thanks for your help. If you have any birthday suggestions let us know.

Sharon and Gib

A reminder about the history of the budget as context for the histrionics over the deficit

Let some truth be told. 

This is a clip from the Newshour and it is important.  Mark Shields walks us back over recent history and reminds us of the facts. 

I need to remember we had a national budget surplus not  long ago and that those who now protest so violently about the deficit seem to have a very different vision of what is good for America. Listening to the threats to dissemble health care reform, planned parenthood, public broadcasting, and most public workers jobs is unbelievable and sad. Am I being asked to accept that I may enter my 80th year working at Walmart sans health insurance watching my grandchildren attend an ever declining education system?  If so then why o why must they also take away public radio?

Make a fuss, do not let the chanting of untruth overwhelm good sense and kindness.
We must not let our best programs and social supports be taken apart as waste or non-essential. I want a government, I want to contribute to joint action, I want nurses and teachers, public health workers, and to know my country has a plan that is more detailed and thoughtful than "Cut funding". To know if our government is too big then we need to talk about what we expect it to do. If we say we cannot afford something then it is because we have chosen not to either because we don't want to afford it or we have decided something else is more important.  In the recent budget wrangling it is clear that cutting taxes for higher income people is more important than education, heat assistance, secure aging, and public health.

I would like to know what the vision is for people who are old, cannot work, lost their retirement savings to wall street, and now have a medical condition that their insurance will not cover. If there is a plan that does not punish these people but provides some semblance of kindness and support now would be a good time to start talking about it.  The strident repetition of slogans about socialism, big government, and the President give me the willies. Fear mongering is not a plan. Taking the government apart sounds more like treason than fiscal responsibility.  In this case, here in the US, we are supposed to be nation building.
Mr Boehner stop telling me about what you are going to take apart and talk about a specific series of steps that will be taken to invest in America.  How shall my grandchildren live and will they still be paying for or fighting in the fake war?

  

Keystone Species and Ecosystem engineers -- you too can be one

Prairie dogs

First, of all, hello. I am (Andra) working with Sharon helping her to keyword images for Mother-Daughter Press. I look at pictures and think about what words all of you might use to find them. I think about scientists, students, greeting card designers, art folks, and everyone else.

One thing I love about the task is finding out something I never knew about an animal or plant. I find that I look at the world differently, thinking about the picture out my window or how I would keyword the view on my run.

A few weeks ago, I keyworded an image of a starfish, I think this one:

Starfish

I looked it up on google, trying to find the Latin name, something we try to always include, and found out something far more interesting about starfish. They are a keystone species. A what?

Keystone species have a disproportionate affect on their ecosystem, they play an important role in maintaining the structure of that ecosystem. You may have heard about indicator species, who like canaries in the mine, indicate the overall health of the ecosystem. Keystone species actually help to maintain the health of that system.

There are several different ways in which species can be keystones. They can be predators, mutualists, or engineers. Predators control the population of a species that would otherwise overtake the ecosystem. Mutualists are partners in a relationship that is crucial to the ecosystem, and engineers are the most amazing of all!

Engineers change the ecosystem. They transfer nutrients from the ocean to the forest (bears),

Brown bear-- an ecosystem engineer

build lakes (beavers), prevent runoff and erosion (prairie dogs), and clear land so other species have space to graze (elephants).

Elephants-- effective ecosystem engineers-- clear land

This is the kind of thing that derails me from keywording and sends me into the rabbit hole of google, and it's the kind of thing that I keep thinking about hours later.

What would happen if we recognized ourselves as engineers? As a keystone species that has the ability to maintain or destroy the planet? Would we change our behavior more quickly if we held ourselves to the stewardship standard set for us by prairie dogs?

I can only hope so.

[Sharons note: I love it we have keywords and keystone species-- a meta-theme emerges about connectedness across and within systems and the keys that serve as bridges or nodes. So, a key word or phrase for starfish might be keystone species.

For some more fun on this topic check out
-- Oysters as engineers-- they clean bays and oceans (see TED video-- oysters as architects and engineers TED.
--Prairedog talk on Radiolab short - radiolab & prariedog

Maybe some of the silly circular talk about climate change would be different if we asked if we are ecosystem engineers? And then, described all the ways that looks and could be different if we got very good at understanding the systems.

Thanks very much, Andra!

Whee! Photoshelter features "11 great walkways"

Stepping stone path through blooming Vinca minor or periwinkle

I got this notice from Photoshelter -- the folks who manage websites for a large collection of photographers. 

Hi Sharon,

Hope all is well with you. I'm getting in touch to let you know that one of your images is featured in our recent "11 Great Photos ofPathways and Walkways" blog post:
Great photos of pathways and walkways

....We try to recognize the exceptional work of our members. We love your photos, and look forward to seeing more of them in the future!

Cheers,
Meghan

--
meghan grosso | marketing coordinator | photoshelter inc
212.206.0808 x3325 | meghan@photoshelter.com | http://www.photoshelter.com

What a treat and great news for Mother-Daughter Press.! So, in the spirit of walkways, paths, circumnavigation, perambulation and vacillando here are a few more photos.

Cairn on the path

Scalloped brick walkway and a Mexican pot

The MKT rails to trails project in Columbia Missouri

Shade garden path past hobbit birdhouse made of Cedar

Paving stones through pink garden

Being the guerilla gardener that she was Gay made many paths

so if you want to see more go to the website and put "path" in the searchbar

There are many fun and gorgeous images

Meanwhile...

Wherever your path takes you 

may it have much beauty and 

times when the going is easy.

Peace, 

Sharon

To Stories from Mogadishu and responses from Vermont

We have been enriched by a conversation with new friends in Africa and one of the topics has been snow. They live at the equator and have an idea of snow that has charmed us here and made us laugh. So this video is for them to give them a sense of snow.



If you haven't heard it yet check out "The story" and Messages from Mogadishu.  This is citizen journalism at its best.  Our response back via this lighthearted video may seem trivial in light of the difficulties there. How can we laugh or complain about the snow when their lives are so constrained and difficult? I don't know how to balance these things, I just know that all I can offer are authentic responses and images of my life.  Sometimes "help" comes as humor, sometimes as questions and always listening.

The reporter, a young man called Abdi, encouraged by Dick Gordon from the radio program "The Story", has gained a voice, an audience, and in our case friends and supporters. This affection and concern has spread and includes his family spread far and wide who worry for him and help him. Abdi, through Dick Gordon and Paul Salopek, an award-winning journalist from Chicago, has begun a conversation with our family, friends and a community of public radio listeners, that makes the far-flung country of Somalia much more pressing and real. Everyday we try to cast a net of safety and connectedness over him. This type of reporting is amazing and life-changing.

Listen. If you want to support The Story or Abdi please do.

Peace

Sharon